Sponsored by: The Museo del Prado and the AXA Foundation present
"Goya in Madrid". This exhibition will propose a new approach
to Goya's tapestry cartoons, the commission that brought the artist
to the Royal Court and led him to settle definitively in Madrid.
Goya devoted two decades of his career to this work between 1775 and
1794, a period in which he established his reputation as a Court and
Academy painter. Unlike habitual presentations of this series of
works, which tend to be organized strictly in relation to the realms
for which they were created, this exhibition compares and contrasts
the cartoons according to their themes, whilst also linking them to
work by Goya's contemporaries (Mengs, Tiepolo, Bayeu, Maella, Paret
and Meléndez) and to the past masters (Titian, Rubens, Teniers and
Velasquez) that Goya would have been able to study in the Spanish
Royal Collection and who served as models for his own creations.

This thematic journey will be made up of 142 works, highlighting the
fact that Goya's tapestry cartoons constitute one of his most
important series when it comes to gaining an in-depth insight into
the great master's work.

Madrid, 27th November 2014.- In Rooms A and B in the Jerónimos
Building, the Museo del Prado and the AXA Foundation present "Goya
in Madrid", an exhibition that seeks to review Goya's extraordinary
series of tapestry cartoons, effectively illustrating the artist's
connections with the past and the art scene of his day. At the same
time, the exhibition will trace how the rich compositions, figures
and expressions that appear in these paintings developed and evolved
in the artist's subsequent creations, encompassing "cabinet"
paintings, drawings and different series of prints. In this respect,
the different sections of the exhibition will be based on a range of
themes, scenes and compositions that have prevailed throughout the
history of decorative painting, especially in Court ambiances, but
which Goya interpreted in accordance with his own special vision of
the world in a series of tapestry cartoons and oil-on-canvas
paintings, the two formats used by the Royal Tapestry Factory to
weave the tapestries based on these works.

The
exhibition will present Goya's tapestry cartoons, together with
works by the rest of the represented artists, in a manner that is
radically different to the customary presentation in the Permanent
Collection they belong to, where they are exhibited according to the
chronological order of the corresponding series and the realms for
which they were created. This extraordinary new exhibition will now
revolve around eight thematic sections, effectively introducing the
public to different technical aspects relating to these works and
highlighting some of the lines of investigation that are likely to
be pursued over the years to come. The exhibition will also
establish Goya's tapestry cartoons as one of the artist's most
important and decisive bodies of work when it comes to understanding
his ideas and the way his artistic vision evolved.

The
exhibition, which begins with a number of hunting themes, will show
scenes from everyday life as it existed in his day, as well as
reflecting the artist's interests through the realms of social
class, the world of children, dance and music. These works also
offer a critical view of the issues of his day, such as unequal
marriage. All of these themes, compositions and perspectives will be
compared with works by Goya's predecessors, such as Titian,
Velasquez and Rubens, but also with paintings, sculptures and
drawings by other artists who created works of art for the Royal
Household over the second half of the eighteenth century, such as
Francisco and Ramón Bayeu, José del Castillo and Mariano Salvador
Maella. This comparison will
show how Goya's work was new and different when portraying the
society and life of his day, based on his own view of reality and
the models that have crystallized in the collective imagination as
being quintessentially Spanish and, above all, typical of Madrid:
local inhabitants such as "majos" and "majas", which in compositions
such as La merienda ("The Picnic"), La riña en la venta nueva
("Brawl at the New Inn"),
("The Ironmonger"), La vendimia ("The Grape Harvest"), and La nevada
("The Snowfall") Goya endows with a universal character.

The first
results of the research that is being carried out at the Museo del
Prado regarding these works will be presented to the general public
at this exhibition. Thus, Goya's cartoon entitled Cazador cargando
su escopeta ("Hunter Loading His Gun") will be shown to the public
for the first time. This painting has undergone a complex and
comprehensive restoration process in order to separate it from
another picture that was joined to it through its lining as of 1933.
The two works made up a single scene that can be contemplated at the
exhibition through a reproduction: the left-hand side corresponded
to a cartoon created by Matías Téllez, Zorro cogido por un cepo
("Wolf
Caught in a Trap"), whilst the right-hand side consisted of Goya's
cartoon known as Cazador cargando su escopeta ("Hunter Loading His
Gun"), a work attributed to Ramón Bayeu at the time. The X-ray and
infrared reflectography exhibited clearly show the point where the
two canvases were joined together and also enable us to make out the
figure of the dog in Goya's cartoon that was cut out. The
restoration process has enabled us to recover the composition
created by the Aragonese master by placing the figure of the dog
back in its original position.

Furthermore, following its recent restoration, the work entitled
Vista de la ciudad de Zaragoza ("View of the City of Saragossa") by
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, will be presented at this
exhibition in its original dimensions, given that the sections added
(probably in the eighteenth century) have now been covered by a
newly-created frame. By means of a cleaning process this work
has recovered its chromatic richness and variety, which has led,
amongst other aspects, to a much clearer reading of its spatial
effects.

Both restorations form part of the Museum's Restoration Programme,
which enjoys the support of the Iberdrola Foundation as a
"Protective Member" of the Museo del Prado.

The
exhibition will also feature a number of multimedia devices
developed in conjunction with Samsung in its capacity as the
Museum's "Technological Collaborator". Amongst these, visitors will
enjoy a carefully-chosen musical selection based on chronological
and thematic criteria closely linked to the exhibition through an
interactive multimedia application, replete with headphones and
tablets.

The
ExhibitionGoya came to Madrid in January 1775 in order to take part in the
Project to Create Tapestry Cartoons for the Royal Residences, under
the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs, the Chief Court Painter and
Art Director at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara.
However, Goya's recognition at Court did not come until eleven years
later, when he was appointed Painter to the King in 1786, and then
named as Chief Court Painter in conjunction with Maella in 1799.

The artist received seven commissions for cartoons, in whose
compositions he reflected all the diversity of the common people in
a series of scenes packed with merriment and enlivened with
amusements, games, children and festivities, but also with violence,
deception and sadness, scenes in which desire and seduction serve as
the backdrop for life. Goya managed to create an extensive range of
sentiments due to his extraordinary capacity to capture the rich
diversity of human nature and different types of male and female
attire, not to mention his ability to suggest endless situations.

This exhibition brings together Goya's cartoons with those of other
artists, whilst also exhibiting paintings and sculptures that served
as models for his startlingly new and innovative creations. Goya did
not conceive his tapestry cartoons as secondary paintings, but as a
metaphoric invention of society, using them to feel his way towards
subsequent creations that were to bring him fame, such as the
etchings that make up the series known as the Caprichos or
"Caprices".

What Does "Goya in Madrid" Sound Like?At this exhibition visitors will be able to listen to a musical
selection linked to the exhibition by means of various electronic
devices located at various points throughout the show. Around the
sculpture of Apollo, the god of music, harmony and beauty, visitors
will be able to listen to what we might consider to be the
soundtrack for "Goya in Madrid". With the aid of Samsung headphones
and tablets, members of the public will be able to enjoy a
carefully-selected classical music repertoire, featuring pieces
expressly chosen according to thematic and chronological criteria
linked to the exhibition. An interactive multimedia application will
not only offer a selection of musical material, but also the images
that the different pieces are linked to. The
musical curatorship for this application was carried out by Lo Otro,
with Marta Espinós in charge of the musical selection and the texts.CatalogueThe accompanying catalogue for the exhibition will consist of the
following: a text by Janis Tomlinson, Retrato del artista en su
juventud ("Portrait of the Artist in His Youth"); a text by Manuela
Mena, "A lo lexos se ve Madrid". Goya y los cartones para tapices:
servicio al rey y ensayo de ideas ("Madrid from the Distance: Goya
and His Tapestry Cartoons - At the Service of the King and
Laboratory of Ideas"); and a series of short texts for the different
sections and sub-sections at the exhibition, with contributions from
Manuela Mena, Gudrun Maurer, Virginia Albarrán, Gemma Cobo, Almudena
Sánchez, Laura Alba and Jaime García Máiquez.

Entry to the ExhibitionThe sole ticket price for the Museum is €14.00 (reduced or free, in
accordance with the usual conditions established to this effect).
This enables visitors to see the permanent collection, the
exhibition "Goya in Madrid. Tapestry Cartoons 1775-1794" and any
temporary exhibitions that may coincide with its exhibition
calendar.

From Monday to Saturday from 6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m., and on Sundays
and Bank Holidays from 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m., all visitors who wish
to see the exhibition will enjoy a reduction in the price of the
individual ticket that corresponds to them. Visitors who would
normally pay the general rate will be able to purchase a
reduced-price ticket of €7.00, whilst groups that have a reduced
ticket price will enjoy a 50% reduction, which is to say, a price of
€3.50 The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Saturday
from 10.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m., and on Sundays and Bank Holidays from
10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.

GOYA IN MADRIDRuns until May 2015Jerónimos Building. Rooms A and BCurators: Manuela Mena, Head Curator of the Goya and 18th Century
Art Department,
and Gudrun Maurer, Curator of the Goya and 18th Century Painting
Department at the
Museo del Prado

www.museodelprado.es

Editor's Note: We are delighted
to bring you the announcement of this extraordinary event with the
compliments of the Museo del Prado, Madrid